Beaver awareness comes from all kinds of regions. It can come from very unlikely places. Just take Martinez, for example, which installed a flow device even after establishing such a time-honored tradition of bad decisions that we built a refinery and a jail in the middle of town. Sometimes beaver wisdom even comes out of Georgia.
For centuries, hunting was an effective way to limit game populations. But popular opinion shifted as Americans moved to metropolitan areas where animals were seen as noble companions instead of food and pests.
Wildlife biologists and animal-control experts have had to find alternatives to lethal control methods. Options include fences and other physical boundaries, trapping, chemicals used as repellents and poisons and habitat changes, such as eliminating food sources like trash and pet foods and closing off nesting sites. Some neighborhoods are allowing sharpshooters to remove deer to reduce population problems and damage.
Wildlife-damage management, regardless of the problem species, has four basic components, according to Greg Yarrow, a Clemson wildlife professor attending the conference. The problem-solving process includes: problem definition through identification and assessment of damage, an understanding of the behavior and ecology of the problem wildlife species, selection and application of control techniques and evaluation of control efforts.
In case that name sounds familiar, Dr. Yarrow is the inventor of the Clemson pond leveler. The most publicized and promoted flow device out there. There is so much information available on the Clemson that 5 years ago when Martinez gathered to discuss ways to prevent flooding, a family from Lafayette offered to donate one to the city. It has been copied a million times and was basically ripped off by this design, which was recently recommended by fish and game to install for our friends in American Canyon.
Beaver advocates everywhere should be very, very grateful for Dr. Yarrow. We should know that his design taught what was possible and helped folks think about a new way to deal with beaver problems. But they should also remember that when this design was invented ‘Baby got Back’ was the hit of the year, Euro Disney just opened in France and Ross Perot ran for president. Digging out a dam to install a pipe through it is a lot of work and the perforated pipe isn’t nearly as successful as the flexible devices used today in designs like the Castor Master (what Skip installed in Martinez) or the Flexible Leveler (what Mike’s DVD teaches.)
Still, outdated learning is still learning. We should be happy this conference is taking place. Little by little folks are beginning to get the idea that beaver problems can be solved in other ways. Slowly we’re getting more wildlife conferences like this in Georgia, and more comments like these from New Hampshire:
“The youth services director, myself, and the parks and rec superintendent at the time, rather than trap the beavers or having them killed by professional hunters, (we) wrapped the trees with chicken wire to prevent them from chewing the trees; that way it saves the trees, ends the hazards, and the beavers simply move on.”
Just so you know, beavers are way bigger than chickens. But it’s a start!
